The ERP partnershipis a Community of Practice on Education and Training,
Capacity Development and Knowledge Sharing
on Agriculture and Sustainable Food Systems for
Food Security, Food Safety and Poverty Reduction

The divide between urban-rural knowledge and education and training is one of today’s main barriers in eradicating poverty and hunger (MDG 1) and achieving the other MDGs.
Four out of five of the at least 61 million out of school children
(UNESCO 2010) and, as a consequence,
of about 775 million illiterate youth and adults are rural people.

The ERP partnership aims to contribute to removing barriers that prevent poor people from using their capacity as part of FAO worldwide call to action to foster rural peoples’ capacity to be food secure and to manage natural resources in a sustainable manner.
ERP is a research-based policy approach promoting
multisectoral alliances between ministries of education and agriculture and
related stakeholders and advocating for increased access to improved quality
education and skills training for all rural adults, youth and children.
ERP works through the identification of political, institutional, organizational and individual opportunities and constraints that poor people face in developing their capacity and accessing education and training services at all levels of education, in both formal and non-formal settings.
It works through a network of more than 400 partners including governments, international agencies, universities, civil society, the media and the private sector.
FAO is the UN lead agency for the Education for Rural People (ERP) Partnership Flagship which is one of the Partnerships of the United Nations Commission for Sustainable Development as well
as one of the flagships initiatives of the Education for all programmes led by UNESCO .

Education is the basic building block of every society. It is the single best investment countries can make towards building prosperous, healthy and equitable societies. In order to renew and reinvigorate global commitments to education, United Nations Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon has launched the Education First initiative to put every child in school, improve the quality of learning, and foster global citizenship.